Since its founding in 2016, Citizen Science Month—in April—has greatly expanded its numbers as people work to protect species and the natural world.
Before the coronavirus hit, the emphasis for Citizen Science Month was in-person multi-generational collaboration and learning, as in these photos. Last year’s was fully virtual, as will be the 2021 undertakings.
It began, as conservation movements often do, with a single event, when participants from around the world explored science projects ranging from outer space to sourdough bread on Citizen Science Day in April 2016.
“And then it was decided that it was too much fun for a day,” says Caroline Nickerson, program manager at Sci-Starter, a web-based research affiliate of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University and the group behind the initiative.
But last year, as SciStarter, Arizona State and collaborators like the National Library of Medicine, National Geographic and the professional Citizen Science Association were gearing up for the first-ever Citizen Science Month, the coronavirus hit.
That didn’t stop the momentum. “It was completely virtual,” says Nickerson, who also serves as director of CitSciMonth. “A lot of libraries, including libraries in the Southeast and in the Appalachian area, and other nonprofits and community groups were planning in-person events, and everybody pivoted to online.” The 2020 event drew nearly 100,000 registered users—ordinary folks who collect data to aid scientists in their research.
This year’s CitSciMonth will also feature Zoom gatherings, remote programs and live-streamed Facebook events.
“Our main goal is just to get people doing citizen science,” says Nickerson. “There are questions that can’t be answered without the help of volunteers. We’re so much more powerful when we have the crowd collecting and analyzing that data. Turning their curiosity into impact moves science forward.”
Anyone can participate, and anyone can plan an event, large or small. SciStarter hosts training programs for more complex projects, but non-scientists can also launch their own. For privacy reasons, you must be over 13 to open a SciStarter account, but children can collect information alongside a parent, Girl Scout troop leader or other trusted adult. Retirees, online gamers, educators, environmental justice advocates, even prisoners, have gotten involved, and most projects require only a cell phone or internet connection to collect photos and data and submit observations.
“We’ve seen participation pretty much on every continent, including Antarctica, all different age groups and people from all different walks of life,” says Nickerson.
Among the more than 3,000 wide-ranging topics are those designed to protect endangered species, study animal behavior and help update classifications. For one project, participants in North Carolina logged their bird-watching discoveries. Others monitored pollen levels, mapped the locations of white squirrels, and monitored the bugs in their homes in an effort to understand indoor biodiversity.
“The Blue Ridge states are definitely a big hub for citizen science,” says Nickerson. “I couldn’t even begin to list the hundreds of projects that are in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, etc.”
But do these efforts actually help the real scientists?
“Citizen Science Month is really valuable for them because it provides a fun way for them to expand their outreach efforts, and invigorate and empower more volunteers, either through training or just inspiration,” Nickerson says. “Citizen science is vital for their research because they can’t do it without the help of volunteers.”
She gives the example of Crowd the Tap, a North Carolina State University-sponsored program whose goal is to ensure safe drinking water throughout the U.S. CitSciMonth participants test their pipes at home to see if they’re made of plastic, lead or another material.
“Those researchers at NC State literally wouldn’t be able to knock on everyone’s door and say, ‘Hey, can I test your pipes?’ They can’t do the research without you.”
Nickerson says the overall initiative, “really does make a difference. Because of citizen science, we know that seasons are occurring earlier. Because of their data, we understand changes in bird migrations across the United States. We’re able to have a grasp on the world around us.”
For more info or to find a project in your area, please visit citizensciencemonth.org.
The story above appears in our March/April 2021 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!